Sunday, December 22, 2013

Snubbed by Hollywood for apparently
being too gay this touching and hilarious Liberace biopic premiered on HBO
therefore denying both Michael Douglas and Matt Damon for Oscar
nominations.It got a cinema release
here in the UK and I loved it.

An obvious choice that will be in everyone’s
end of year lists, this sci-fi thriller was a cinematic phenomenon reminding us
all what we should expect from the big screen.To all those people who pirated the film online, as they couldn’t be
bothered to pay to see it: you missed something special.

An understated documentary that gave an
insight into the terrible AIDS virus of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.A heartbreaking and brilliant film about the
power of people in the face of government prejudice – it was released in a year
where LGBT rights are expanding at an amazing rate in the West, but there is
still so much work to do.A humanizing
and important film.

If you like watching uncomfortable and
ethically ambiguous films then the new film from Joshua Oppenheimer is the
godfather of worrying documentaries.The
entire film is a meditation on suffering and humiliation told in such a radical
form that the audience becomes complicit in the horrors that are
presented.The filmmakers have contacted
thugs and gangsters that undertook the extermination of ‘communists’ in the
‘60s in Indonesia and asked them to tell their story by making a film of their
own; thereby creating the cruelest and most uncomfortable meta-documentary/making-of
films that I have ever seen.

The film does not spend long giving
context to the Indonesian killings that occurred in 1965-66, so with that in
mind I feel that I can make a few comments on the content of the film without really
knowing anything about that era.Oppenheimer does not try to educate the audience about that time, but
instead uses those events as a catalyst to explore Indonesian politics and
culture today.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

It might seem a little 'meta' to review a live book tour about a book that critiques the process of film criticism, but I would feel bad If I were not to legitimise the enjoyment I had of the evening by committing a few words to (digital) paper.

For those who do not know Mark Kermode, he is the recently promoted chief film critic of The Observer, as well as being the important half (sorry Simon!) of the Kermode & Mayo Radio 5 Film Review Show.

I love Mr. Kermode for many reasons:

He lives in Brockenhurst (where I grew up)

He has an unashamed love for films that are not aimed at his demographic (Twilight, to pick an obvious example...but there are plenty others)

He loves horror

He's in a skiffle band and he loves Larmer Tree Festival

I could go on but won't. He is also very good at discussing films.

I must admit at this point that I haven't actually read his latest book yet (I think Santa might deliver it...) But I did read It's Only A Movie, a cinematic autobiography, and The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex, an analysis of the economic and semiotic problems with blockbusters and digital cinemas. Both were very funny, but also wonderfully celebratory of the magic of cinema - allowing the same passionate geekism towards Werner Herzog instead of Zak Snyder, Chris Nolan and other comic book films that have captured modern geek culture.

Mark spent the evening reminiscing about pithy bad reviews ("Hatchet Jobs") from critics past, as well as expanding on the central idea revolving about the powerful viral appeal of negativity as opposed to thoughtful reflection on good cinema. He managed to walk the line between cinematic stand-up and cultural theorist, without committing to either position. It was easy to see why he has such a strong following - he makes you feel like he is chatting to you one-to-one, and he loves a good in-joke.

He also had some excellent answers in the Q&A. I asked him about how to gain more invites to press screenings and he immediately launched into an interesting reflection on how times have changed for film critics... And when he finished he asked me if it had been helpful. Lovely bloke.

His book Hatchet Job is available now and would make a very good christmas present

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Over the last couple of years there has
been a real interest in ballet, especially now that the Bolshoi season is shown
in full at PictureHouse
Theatres as well as at Odeons.

Love Tomorrow (Christopher Payne)

For years the cinema has been attacked
as the cultural younger brother of Opera, Theatre and Ballet – a mass culture
format to entertain the masses that can’t afford the more expensive high
arts.Yet every now and then a film
arrives that celebrates high art within the popular medium – so to celebrate
the arrival of Love Tomorrowon DVD
(available here),
here are some of the finer examples:

Every now and then a film is released
that has such an overt conflict of interest that it can make you cringe.Anyone who has seen Happy Gilmore will recognize that product placement can ruin a
film, even if it is a comedy.However
the new film from Disney has just the right level of self-deprecation and
awareness to give different viewers different enjoyments.

The story follows P.L. Travers (Emma
Thompson) deciding whether to sell the rights to Mary Poppins to Walt Disney (Tom Hanks).Disney has invited her to Hollywood so that
she can be involved in the scriptwriting process, but she is cynical from the
start and is horrified that they have included music and animation into her
stoic and serious character stories.

The film is intercut with scenes from
Travers’ childhood where she grew up in Australia.Her father was a banker with an alcohol
problem but a wonderful imagination, who slowly begins to jeopardize his career
with his drunken flamboyance.